Chemical vapor deposition systems are divided into two primary types, namely, atmospheric pressure, and low pressure. Within each type, a system may be either cold wall or hot wall. Cold wall systems use induction or radiant heating to directly heat the wafer holders or wafers as they pass through a quartz reaction chamber. Hot wall types of reactors supply the reaction energy by a method that heats the wafers, the wafer holder and the chamber walls.
The advantage of cold wall chemical vapor deposition is that the reaction substantially occurs only at the heated wafer holder. On the other hand, in a hot wall system, the chemical reaction occurs throughout the reaction chamber having a greater tendency to leave reaction products and by-products on the inside chamber walls. In this regard, the reaction products build up on the reactor walls thereby necessitating rigorous and frequent cleaning to prevent contamination of the wafers being processed. This reactor cleaning step, and subsequent contamination control measures, reduces the throughput of the chemical vapor deposit reactor and therefore increases the manufacturing costs attendant to semiconductor devices produced by this manufacturing method. In still other systems, a plasma field is created in the reaction chamber to enhance film deposition. The plasma field provides additional energy to the chemical reaction thus resulting in more uniform depositions and/or lower reaction temperatures. These assemblies are called plasma enhanced chemical vapor deposition systems.
A method of inhibiting the deposition of material on an internal wall of a chemical vapor deposition reactor is the subject matter of the present application.